Since I got excited and joined the effort to create a maker or hackerspace in New Haven, there has been a lot of activity.  Here’s a quick breakdown in case you are just tuning in:

1. Lost of Discussion.  We’re up to 34 members on the listserv.  (Hope you’ll join, too.)  I think there have been 3 or 4 meetings and a growing number of people getting involved. There is definitely excitement about moving forward.
2. Various Visions.  With the excitement comes various different visions for what this maker/hackerspace should be and do.  From “for the members by the members” vision of basically putting our garage projects into one clubhouse to a TechShop 10,000+ sq ft with heavy equipment.  And lots of debate if the goal should be to drive economic development directly (by say providing a place for startups to make prototypes) or indirectly by increasingly the cool factor of town, attracting interesting people and building a creative community.  More specifically Kam laid out a phased approach (start now and start small at 15 people paying $50/month each).  Alan put together a whitepaper with his BIG vision which includes shop, lap, conference room, classes and yes the kitchen sink.  Rob put together a budget for something that looks to be in between.
3. Survey.  John has taken the approach of asking the community for input on what the vision should be.  Here’s a survey that asks what do you want and what would you actually use?  Preliminary results are posted online.  (If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please don’t read the results yet.)
4. Locations. We’ve been taking about the right location.  Should it be downtown?  Large?  Small to start?  Some of us took a tour of potential locations and and JR took a bunch of photos along the way.  That was fun!
5. Picking a Name.  Once we have a name, it is easier to get the legal stuff squared away and start further promotion.  Incorporation or even accepting money or other donations will be easier with a name.  So, I’ve been promoting the idea of picking a name sooner rather than later.  There has been much brainstorming on the topic.  It has been argued that “hacker” is still a misunderstood term with only a negative connotation.  Others don’t like “make” as they feel it is limiting.  I personally like things that people know how to spell, can search for on the web and that explains something about the subject without unnecessarily limiting you.  (Read up on tips on naming startups if you’re interested in the subject.)  Therefore, I favor MakeHaven.  It’s clear you make things here, it is a safe place and related to New Haven.  Hits a lot of the checkboxes.

Please share your thoughts below or on the listserv.  And share your tools here.

(Photos by JR Logan.)